Campaigners are calling on the Government to ensure the future of science funding in Cambridge post-Brexit.

The Open Britain campaign group is calling for politicians to ensure the UK remains within the EU’s science funding programme during the continuing Brexit negotiations.

Since the programme began in 2014 Cambridge University has received £197 million in funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme.

It is second only to Oxford University as the best-funded university in the whole of the EU.

The East of England has received £434 million and the UK £3.55 billion in total over the three year period.

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Open Britain supporter Norman Lamb MP, is also chairman of the House of Commons science and technology select committee.

He said:“These figures shine a light on just how vitally important EU funding is for our knowledge economy. Universities and research institutes in every region and nation of Britain rely on investment from Horizon 2020.

"Since 2014, we have enjoyed nearly €4 billion in investment, a huge return which makes Britain the second largest recipient of EU funding in Europe.

“We still have no guarantee that the Government will seek to remain in EU science programmes after Brexit, and precious little detail about what comes next. Ministers must ensure that no British universities or projects lose a penny in funding because of Brexit, both up to 2020 and beyond.

“The Government must end their reckless obsession with a hard Brexit, which is putting our science and research sector at risk, and negotiate to keep Britain in Horizon 2020 and its successor programme.”

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Other East of England universities which rely on large sums of EU funding are the University of East Anglia, which has received £15.26 million, and Cranfield University, which has received £14.36 million.

The Chancellor has promised that the Government will match EU funding that has already been promised. But they have made no promises about future funding, nor whether the UK will remain a member of Horizon 2020 and its successor program.